Marta Gross is a partner in the firm's Litigation Department and a member of its Patent Litigation Practice. For more than 20 years, she has focused her practice on patent matters, including patent litigation, strategic counseling and opinions, and patent-related due diligence. Ms. Gross joined Goodwin Procter as a partner in 2003. Prior to joining the firm, Ms. Gross was a partner at Fish & Neave.
Upon joining the firm, Ms. Gross organized and developed the strategic patent counseling practice to support Teva, the world's largest generic pharmaceutical company. She continues to lead this team which provides validity and infringement advice and opinions, as well as strategic counseling to Teva and others in the life sciences.
A major portion of Ms. Gross's practice also includes patent litigation. Ms Gross's recent representative patent litigation engagements include:
- Lead counsel for Makhteshim Agan of North America (MANA) and Control Solutions (CSI) in a patent infringement action brought in North Carolina by BASF and Bayer on three patents relating to the pesticide fipronil. The district court granted MANA's and CSI's motion for summary judgment of no infringement, which was affirmed by the Federal Circuit, and Ms. Gross's clients have launched the first generic fipronil termiticide.
- Lead counsel for Roxane Laboratories (Roxane) in a patent infringement action filed by Novartis under the Hatch-Waxman Act in response to Roxane's filing of an abbreviated new drug application (ANDA) for the pharmaceutical drug oxcarbazepine. The case successfully settled with the result that Roxane was able to launch its product prior to the expiration of the asserted patent.
- Counsel for Cytec in an infringement action filed by Ciba in the District of Delaware on patents involving polymeric microbead technology. The case was resolved by summary judgment in favor of Cytec.
Ms. Gross has represented numerous additional clients in major patent litigations. A sampling of those litigations includes representing:
- Exxon in a high profile action brought by Dow on patents relating to polyolefin catalyst technology.
- Becton Dickinson in a patent litigation brought by Critikon on patents involving safety catheter technology.
- Hoechst Roussel in a patent litigation brought by Warner Lambert on a patent for a drug for treating Alzheimer's disease.
- Dade-Behring in a patent litigation brought against Biosite on a patent involving methods and devices for performing immunoassays.
- AlliedSignal in a patent litigation brought by FilmTec on a patent involving reverse osmosis technology.
PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES
Ms. Gross is a member of the New York City Bar Association and served a three-year term as chair of the Patents Committee. Ms. Gross is also a member of the ABA, AIPLA and NYIPLA and serves on various committees on those organizations. Ms. Gross created and organized the PLI Program on Patent Basics and has chaired that program on all seven occasions that it has been offered by PLI.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Ms. Gross worked as an engineer (including having major managerial responsibilities) for eight years after her graduation from MIT, during the latter portion of which she attended evening law school. Ms. Gross gained from her engineering experience real-world perspectives regarding the kind of problems her corporate clients face and finding practical solutions to those problems. Ms. Gross first worked at General Electric for three years where she participated in GE's Manufacturing Management Program. Thereafter, she worked at Millipore Corporation. During her last two years at Millipore (and while attending law school at night), Ms. Gross was the Manager of New Product Development. In that role, Ms. Gross managed the group responsible for bringing Millipore's new chemical-related chromatography products from the research and development stage to full scale manufacture, in accordance with a schedule and a budget.
EDUCATION
J.D., Suffolk University School of Law, 1988 (Evening Division, cum laude)
Sc.B., Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1980
BAR ADMISSIONS
Massachusetts
New York
US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)
Recognition
Ms. Gross was named a "Life Sciences Star" in the 2012 LMG Life Science Survey, which recognizes the preeminent life sciences practitioners in the United States.
Ms. Gross is listed in New York Super Lawyers 2012.